Video security cameras are a useful tool for enhancing safety in public and/or secure areas. A security camera allows activity to be monitored for identification, for alerting the occurrence of unwanted activity or intrusions and/or for providing a signal that may be recorded for later reference or potential use as evidence. For example, security cameras are commonly used to monitor activities in airports, banks, shopping areas, parking lots, train stations, etc.
Due to a heightened concern for safety aboard commercial passenger aircraft, security cameras are desired to monitor passenger activity in various places of an aircraft cabin, particularly in the vicinity outside the cockpit door. Additionally, the National Transportation and Safety Board recently proposed a regulation that would require the installation of a video camera in the cockpit of each commercial aircraft for recording pilot activities for use in analyzing aircraft accidents.
For use in commercial aircraft applications, each security camera is mounted at one of several typical installation locations in the aircraft cabin, each installation location having particular structural surroundings and desired orientation. Depending on a customer's needs the aircraft can be equipped with one or more cameras at these various installation locations. The various installation locations may require a respective camera to be mounted behind a vertical wall, above a ceiling panel, to a bulkhead, etc., and each such location requires a particular camera view angle for monitoring a desired portion of the cabin. As a result, a variety of camera types have been designed in order to satisfy the particular constraints of the various camera installation locations. Duplicative resources are consumed in redesigning a camera for different installation locations, as each type of camera must be engineered, manufactured, supplied, purchased, stocked, installed and maintained. A need, therefore, exists for a security camera that can be universally mounted at each commonly desired installation location within an aircraft cabin.
Security cameras must operate in widely varying lighting conditions. Conventional security cameras are operable to generate a video image from visible light but are incapable of functioning in low-light conditions or darkness. A need therefore exists for a security camera that can be used in variable lighting conditions ranging from bright daylight to pitch dark.